


In Which Lance is the First to Know

by eccentrick



Series: Tumblr Prompts [8]
Category: Voltron: Legendary Defender
Genre: Gen, M/M, this was written before s5 if you can believe it, was originally on tumblr
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2018-04-18
Updated: 2018-06-25
Packaged: 2019-04-24 19:29:08
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 3
Words: 2,541
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/14362074
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/eccentrick/pseuds/eccentrick
Summary: Lance knows there's something up with Shiro, but he seems to be the only one.





	1. Chapter 1

**Author's Note:**

> Okay!!! So this is my successful drabble fic from tumblr. Due to anti spamming in the Shance tag, I decided to post this on ao3 to combat it! 
> 
> This was written before s5 too (look at my tumblr if you don't believe me) so I feel sorta proud of myself. It's mostly unedited since this is an impulsive posting!!

It’s surprising when Lance seems to notice it first. 

Shiro has been…strange, since he got back, for the second time. He doesn’t stick with the team as much, nor does he seem as invested in training them; he sometimes looks at Allura with this blank look, like he can’t hear a word she says, what anyone says in that moment. More small instances set off Lance’s alarm bells. 

And, maybe he’s wrong, maybe his PTSD is kicking him when he’s down. He was just in the clutches of the evil empire, again. So, Lance is looking too much into it, looking too closely at his hero and thinking he’s entitled to see a stable, normal Shiro when that’s just not the case.

But, he knows he’s not wrong when Shiro seems to…actually see Lance. Looking at him with an expression other than exasperation and annoyance, and the dreaded anger. Shiro didn’t listen to him before, and that almost cost everyone their lives, and instead of ignoring it, he actually apologizes to Lance. Shiro, actually needing to apologize about something! He doesn’t think he needs to look perfect in front of Lance and the others.

This is suspect. Even more so when Shiro gets after Pidge during one of Lance and Pidge’s bickering moments. Shiro, reprimanding Pidge, even he doesn’t need to. 

All these thoughts are too loud in Lance’s head, so wanders around the ship when he really should be sleeping. Oh, how his beautiful skin will suffer, but it’ll suffer even more from the crease marks Lance would get if he tosses and turns in his bed. 

Running into Shiro wasn’t the plan. Legit, full body contact with the Black Paladin and then with the floor, was totally not his plan. 

“Ugh…” Lance groans. 

Shiro is already up, Galra had stretched out to help Lance up. Taking it, Lance underestimates Shiro’s strength and almost falls down once again.

“Are you okay, Lance?” Shiro asks. 

Lance tries not to remember the feeling of Shiro’s muscles against his skin. Tries, and fails. He’s just thankful that Shiro is too out of it to notice Lance’s gaze. 

Wait…

“Are you okay, Shiro?”

Shiro blinks, eyes clearing minutely. “Yes, I’m fine,” he answers, voice monotone. 

Blurting, Lance’s thoughts burst and spill into existence. “Are you sure? You’ve been acting sorta weird lately. If you’re struggling ju-”

“NO.” 

Lance blinks at the interruption and the sheer strength behind the word. It conveys so much, the one syllable carrying such a burden.

Before Lance can answer, Shiro is booking it, turning a corner by the time uses his words.

“Are you really Shiro?”

–

Lance isn’t dumb. He isn’t a science or a tech genius like Hunk and Pidge. He’s not a pilot prodigy like Keith. No, he’s mediocre at best, and maybe that’s why he notices it when no one else does.

He’s good at reading people, good at saying the right words in the crucial times. Lance is good at knowing what others are feeling because he can’t be bothered to analyze his own. So, he thinks on his almost out of body experience at his blurted statement. 

Are we sure that’s Shiro? He asks himself over and over. His heart wants to scream no! no! no! But he can defy logic this time.

It was always suspicious that Shiro escaped in such a strange way. He was unhurt, physically, his dehydration due to searching for them in a fighter ship, and his cauterized wound from landing on another planet after escaping. But it’s his escape that has Lance baffled.

Why didn’t the Galra find and kill him? He was vulnerable. They could have easily take him out. And, his hair was way too long for being gone for only a month or two; Lance would know, hair is kind of his thing. When you look at this all, you can come to a simple conclusion.

Is this really Shiro? If not, who is it?

And, if this isn’t Shiro, where is he?


	2. Chapter 2

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I have all the part written until chapter 4
> 
> Where is this set, in canon? I have no idea.

“Hey, Pidge, I have a sciency question that’ll need a genius’ perspective.” 

Pidge sighs at Lance’s voice, her following groan muffled by the screwdriver in her mouth (which can’t be neither safe, nor sanitary.) Still, despite her irritated disposition, she turns and gives Lance a glance. She’s just shy of a hand gesture to pull off the ‘well, get on with it’, and wait, there it is, as she does the wave from Princess Diaries that she and Lance watched non-stop every week before finals.  

She spits out the tool. “Get on with it, then.” 

Clearing his throat, Lance tries to sound as nonchalant as possible. “So, listen, is cloning possible? Rapid cloning? Like, super rapid cloning?”

Pidge raises an eyebrow. “Yes, we are in space, fighting against a mega Empire of technologically superior fascists. I’d say anything is possible, at this point.” 

Lance’s heart pounds in his ears, reminding him of hope lost. 

Pidge stretches, grinning at Lance’s wince as multiple vertebrae click and pop in quick succession. 

“You are so grotesque,” he grumbles. 

“Yeah, I know,” she replies with pride. She pauses before saying, “Why did you want to know? I thought you had a phobia of anything educational.”

Lance takes the bait, because he has to act normal, and unfortunately, normal him gets offended by stuff like that. Strange how quickly perceptions can change. “Hey! I resent that!” 

“Cliché comeback, Lance. And you didn’t answer the question.”

He scruffs his sneakers against the metal floor. “Well, see, I have this dog back on Earth, a dog that I’d like to have multiple versions of simultaneously-”

“Okay. You’re dismissed.” With that, she turns and gets back to work. 

Lance stares at the back of her head, not even flinching in disgust at the multiple knots entangled within the mane she calls hair. He tries to muster up a smile, and maybe a retort, but he can’t force himself to. He’s glad that it took almost nothing to ease any suspicions Pidge has, but also kind of sad about it, because he’d like her to ask him what’s wrong so he can spill his guts, along with their feelings, and have them easily disregarded, so his brain can stop stalling; what used to be a relief is now a resigned sort of silence. 

Weird how perceptions change, right?

–

As much he doesn’t want to, Lance searches for Keith next. He knows Shiro the best, being friends the longest, and the guy is naturally suspicious, so if Lance managed to notice something strange, he has to have as well. 

He, of course, finds him training. Thankfully he’s alone, Shiro nowhere to be seen. 

Keith notices him immediately, but he doesn’t stop his training sequence. Lance stands on the sidelines for what seems like forever. Tapping his foot passive aggressively makes no difference, nor does his repeated sighs, so he just steps into the sequence, weaponless. The bot pauses, turning to Lance slowly like something out of a horror movie, and then darts for him; Lance does nothing, feet rooted to the spot, and before it can reach him, Keith yells, “End sequence!”

The bot collapses in between them with a muffled thud that echos hollowly. Lance stares at it to have something to look at, the heat from Keith’s glare almost being too much. 

“What is your problem?!” Keith asks, arms thrown up in the air. He steps over the bot with a deliberate stride, giving Lance the shivers, and not the excited kind. No, one created by the puff of danger’s breath on his neck, warning him that things could get pretty bloody if he’s not careful. Of course, Lance is close enough to Keith by now to know that Keith would never intentionally hurt him or any of the others. Give a few extra bruises in sparring training, to prove a smug point, yes, but nothing malicious nor excessive. 

Which is something Lance needs to remind himself of as he asks about Shiro. Like a hair trigger, Keith grits his teeth, plants his feet firmly on the ground and glares at Lance like he’s a particularly sharp shard of sand in his musty boots. “What are you implying?” Keith asks, blunt as usual.

Lance sighs. “That we need to be concerned about Shiro. He’s been acting strange. And, well, you’re his super special friend, so I figured…”

Keith is confused, head tilted to the side, “Sure, me and Shiro are friends…?”

“Okay, buddy, I’ll leave alone to brood and destroy. See ya later.”

Lance catches a last glimpse of Keith before he exits the training deck; it can only be described as inscrutable, as though Keith is confronted by something he recognizes but doesn’t know. And, this is honestly the biggest clue that he is on the right track as he’s ever had. Keith knows Shiro the best, having a mysterious past that has never been spoken of but has only been heavily implied. Keith knows that Shiro is different, but he still hasn’t put all the puzzle pieces together to form a true blue picture. No, he doesn’t have all the pieces, but he sure just gave Lance a few.

He visualizes them clicking in place, a picture in the throes of deciding what it wants to be.

–

Lance can’t sleep again. He wonders if Allura or Coran could give him any space sleeping pills. Nothing heavy, just enough to knock him out. He knows that if they did that they wouldn’t give it to him unless necessary, because, hello, Paladin on call. Well, now that Shiro is back, he’s not so sure. 

Anyway, he can’t sleep, and he can’t stop the jumble of thoughts and memories rushing through the threshold of his mind, pumbling and falling through the doorway like in the cartoons. He feels the persistent rumbling of Red in his mind, causing him to relax just a little at the thought of having a place. His legs make the way to her without even noticing, entering the hangar in the haze of sleeplessness. 

On his way, he almost trips over a very large body belonging to Shiro. Lance curses enough to make Coran cry and swoon in despair. 

“Woah there, are you okay?!” Lance asks as Shiro jerks violently out of slumber. The guilt of waking someone else up while he’s unable to rest is real. Lance might as well just gone and kicked a space puppy. 

Shiro groans, eyes fluttering open in a way that can only be described as Disney Prince-ly. The dude has eyelashes for days. Shiro’s eyes are blurry and unfocused, and in that moment, almost…childlike. Reminiscent. Like someone wishing for the comfort of their childhood bed, where a blanket is enough to drive off the monsters. 

(Lance should really understand that he’s not the only one homesick, and he should quit feeling sorry for himself. But he’s never been regarded as mature.)

“Lance?” 

Lance jolts, his mind sliding back into gear. Sleep is for the weak and those with naturally great skin. “Yes? You okay, Shiro? You should really try to sleep in a bed, I heard it can do a lot for the back, the muscles, the joints, you get the idea. Though, really, I can’t really talking when I am in the middle of my midnight stroll…if it is actually midnight. I don’t know anymore.”

Shiro’s eyes are glassy for an entire different reason when Lance looks at him again; Lance’s ramblings can rival that of Pidge’s. Lance relaxes, just a little, at the sign that maybe Shiro was brought out of whatever funk he was in. 

“No, no, I should apologize. It’s my fault for sleeping in such a strange place. Maybe we both should go to our rooms, because we always need to be ready.” And, there, there he is. The Shiro they all know and love, as work obsessed as he is.

Lance narrows his eyes. Shiro, if you look closely, looks jittery and unbalanced in body and mind. Was he really asleep, or had Lance caught him mid-flashback?! Has Lance hyped everything up when what is really going on is PTSD? How much of a cheesing jerk would he be?! 

Shiro walks him to his room for some reason. Just as he was about to go in, jump in bed and scream out his stupidity into a pillow, a hand is clasped on his shoulder. A Galran one. 

“Let’s…not tell any of the others about this, okay?” 

That’s not shady, at all. “Sure, sure, wouldn’t want anyone else to get suspicious,” he replies. Shiro, or whoever he is, stiffens, eyes widening in shock. He rips his hand off Lance like he suddenly caught fire, and stepped back a few paces. He nods at Lance before turning on his heel and walking away in a deliberately even pace.

Lance hurries into his room and sits on his bed, numb. His mind is whirling at a thousand miles per hour as his body begs for rest. 

Right before he falls asleep, he has one last stray thought wrestling to be recognized; sometimes Shiro is Shiro, but other times, it’s as though…there are two versions of him.  


	3. Chapter 3

Lance is confused and unsure, two default emotions nowadays. Shiro has been on his best behavior since Lance – like an idiot – basically called him a fake, sparring and doing his weird Jedi master thing with Keith, and having big important talks with Allura and Coran. He briefly thinks of maybe sharing his suspicions with the Princess, but knows she’ll want definite proof, something he can’t give. Coran might help, but he’d go overboard and none so subtly try to conduct tests to see if Shiro is Shiro no. 1.

So, he just thinks, and thinks and thinks. This Shiro isn’t malicious nor aggressive, and the only thing stopping Lance from just accepting the current situation is knowing the real Shiro might still be out there, in Galran clutches. That’s no bueno.

That brings him back to square one, all alone with his very scientific way of determining the reality of this conundrum.

(It’s very unscientific, let’s be real, he’s mostly just lurking wherever Shiro is and tasting the air, trying to sense any strange movements, emotions and actions. Besides a more flat, blunt Shiro, nothing has changed much. Lance does get in a few sick burns on Keith, and Shiro only gives him the side eye instead of his patented sigh.)

The biggest change in behavior is his short temper towards Keith; he still has the patience of a saint with that dude, but noticeably less so. Those missing bits of patience have maybe switched over to Lance, who now gets more helpful directions and reduced lectures. The others notice, Hunk elbowing Keith while teasing that he’s no longer the favorite.

The worst part is that Lance is enjoying it. He’s enjoying his hero turned friend’s sudden personality transplant, because he gains from it. Scummy can’t even begin to cover his overall feeling when he dwells on that fact.

It’s good that Lance is nosey when it counts; he knows to leave people be, but he also knows when he has to break some barriers.

**Author's Note:**

> Originally written on my Voltron tumblr: lo-tor.


End file.
